Witches’ Legacy: Lair of the Witch Queen is the sequel to Witches’ Lair: The Charleston Curse in which Lynn is chosen by the evil witch Elizabeth to be her sole heir.
However, in order to get close to Lynn, Elizabeth became engaged to Lynn’s brother and then proceeded to murder the rest of her family. While there was nothing you could do for her family, you were successful in rescuing Lynn, and, since then, you’ve raised her as your own.
But now, just as she is starting to discover the true strength of her magical powers, a letter arrives divulging the location of Elizabeth in Germany. Lynn, overcome by her anger, decides to exact her revenge, and now it’s up to you to stop her before the evil powers coursing within her become too strong for her to contain.
I know I’ve come into the casual market a little late… so as usual, I was a little wary of starting a game that is second in a series, when I’ve never played the original and I’m not familiar with the storyline. I’m never sure if I will understand the context.
However, I really had nothing to worry about in this case. I was very excited to see that Witches Legacy: Lair of the Witch Queen contained a quick recap in the opening cut scene, so I didn’t feel at a disadvantage stepping into the story part way through. But, not worries for all of you who have played the original. The refresher is told in such a way that an experienced player would not the bored by the rehash of the first game in the least.
The animation is excellent and the background music and sounds are really well done. The audio cues provide good support for the story and mood without overpowering the player.
The gameplay in Witches Legacy: Lair of the Witch Queen is relatively simple and quick – I enjoyed clicking through and exploring the scenes, but the direction is clear, even in the absence of any hint or help features.
Four play modes allow you to customize the level of difficulty and the collector’s edition contains the usual strategy guide. There are several achievements to earn along the way as well, most of which, I admit, I discovered by accident. But once I got the hang of it, I had fun hunting for them in subsequent scenes.
I have to say, my all-time favorite feature of the game was my little buddy, the Imp. Once you get past his freaky glowing green eyes, he’s really quite cute. And so helpful! Say you need to get something down from the top of the lamppost – click on the Imp and click on the lamppost and he scurries right up and retrieves the object for you. How fun! I wish I had him helping me around the house in real life. Imp, go let the dog out. Imp, go get me a drink…. Hey a girl can dream, right?
There was one little odd thing that happened when you first meet the imp though. As he’s walking around the inside of your house, his footsteps sound like he’s wearing stilettos – not that I’m judging or anything…
Witches Legacy: Lair of the Witch Queen contains 27 hidden object scenes with some level of interaction to solve. A hint feature is available in casual mode as is the option to switch the HOS to a memory game. While the scenes aren’t difficult…I was able to quickly find all the objects without the need for a hint in most cases… I did like the option to switch to a game if I wanted to.
There are roughly the same number of mini-games sprinkled through the game as there are HOS. As with the hidden object scenes, the games were relatively easy and are typical for this type of game.
Some are very quick, such as matching pictures and others involve a little more logic and time but most aren’t very challenging. Plus, in casual mode, you can always skip if you get frustrated, but I enjoyed walking through each game.
Overall, I was very pleased with Witches Legacy: Lair of the Witch Queen and look forward to going back and playing the earlier game in the series to find out more about the relationship between Lynn and Elizabeth. The only reason I didn’t give this game 5 stars was I found it a just a little too easy if you can believe that.
If you’re looking for a higher level of difficulty and challenging gameplay, then Witches Legacy: Lair of the Witch Queen may not be for you… but if you enjoy a good story, beautiful graphics, and relaxing gameplay, I definitely recommend giving it a try!